Snake Day

An hourly guide that follows twenty-four snakes as they find mates, hunt, and survive a changing world.

Does a snake crossing your path trigger delight or dread? The answer is clear for celebrated biologist Marty Crump, who shows us that snakes deserve our respect, admiration, and protection. In her short book Snake Day, each chapter introduces a single snake during a single hour, highlighting twenty-four different species from around the globe. 

In the dark morning of a Brazilian forest, we avoid stepping on a jararaca, a nocturnal viper. If she bites, her venom will make our blood pressure—and us—drop. A synthetic version of this venom is now a life-saving drug, used to treat hypertension and heart failure. Later in the morning, in the Zagros Mountains that trace Iran’s northwest border, there’s enough light to see a tiny arachnid wiggling on the ground. When a warbler dives for a meal, he realizes his mistake too late; that spider is actually a snake’s tail, and a spider-tailed horned viper makes a meal of the bird. In the early afternoon, in a pine forest outside of Atlanta, Georgia, an eastern hognose snake will strike at us—a bluff—and then roll over and play dead. By the end of our snake day, we’ll have glimpsed the diversity of this unique group of reptiles, met serpentine friends who frighten and fascinate, and learned how humans can protect these amazing species.

For each chapter, celebrated artist Stuart Patience has depicted these scenes with stunning pen and ink illustrations. Working together to narrate and illustrate these unique moments in time, Crump and Patience have created an engaging read that is a perfect way to spend an hour or two—and a true gift for readers, amateur scientists, and anyone who recoils from or relishes snake visits.